


The Ghost Stories of our Hearts

by Majsasaurus



Category: Naruto
Genre: Accidents, Adventure, Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood and Injury, F/M, Falling In Love, First Dates, Fluffy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Trauma, Poor Shikamaru, it has a happy ending!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28195707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Majsasaurus/pseuds/Majsasaurus
Summary: The first date Shikamaru invited Temari to turned into a disaster, and that was before they found an abandoned house. They had a choice - to back off or enter.They entered the house.
Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Temari
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	The Ghost Stories of our Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lollipopmania](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lollipopmania/gifts).



> This fic is part of a Shikatema Secret Santa event!
> 
> My prompt was "first date ends in hospital" and it was prompted by Lollipopmania. Merry Christmas 2020!

Everything had gone according to plan when Shikamaru finally mustered the courage to ask Temari out on a date. To his enormous surprise, she had, with a shrug and a content smile, agreed to join him to what he called ‘the best cloud-spotting place ever’ – a silly thing he had just straight up lied about to her because he panicked when she asked him to where he was going to bring her.

He had for quite some time now eyed and secretly been crushing on Gaara’s older sister, ever since that one time she had come to Naruto’s place to fetch Gaara home after a wet night out. Gaara hadn’t been in a condition to get himself safely home after Naruto had invited the boys for a boardgame night, and _someone_ (not Shikamaru, that was for certain) had suggested to implement a drinking game into the boardgame they were playing.

Gaara had lost badly and was as drunk as a skunk when most of the guests were slowly finding their ways home.

And who would have guessed that it had been Shikamaru who had to take responsibility for Gaara when Naruto fell asleep on the kitchen floor.

He had awkwardly – Gaara wasn’t even that close of a friend of his – patted Gaara on his back while he had his head down in the toilet and asked who he could call.

“Temari,” Gaara had croaked. “Take my phone – call her.”

Shikamaru had hauled Gaara’s phone out of his pocket and called Temari. It had been a nasty call. She had growled and cursed right into his ear, complaining about Gaara being too rowdy for his own good as if Shikamaru was the one responsible for Gaara’s vomiting.

Well, he could have taken the liquor bottle from Gaara’s hands, but he was winning the game and frankly enjoyed seeing his friends lose.

When Temari arrived, furiously stomping into Naruto’s apartment without even taking her boots off, she stopped to stare at Gaara sleeping soundly in the sofa.

“He fell asleep like most of the bunch,” Shikamaru shrugged, leaning over the kitchen counter. He had enough of this boardgame night and wanted to just leave the train wreck of the remaining guests of Naruto’s party, but some sense of duty had taken the better off him.

He had imagined Temari to shake Gaara awake and drag him with force to her car, but instead of the expected violence she let a deep, resigned breath loose. Shikamaru immediately stood up straighter from his leaning position, just regarding Temari.

“He sleeps,” she whispered – a whisper that was not meant for Shikamaru’s ears. She quickly regained her posture, looking down at the stack of boardgames, before staring almost into Shikamaru’s soul. “You. Do you play?”

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows.

“Huh?”

“Do you play boardgames?” Temari repeated.

“Well, I have done so for the past six hours, what do you expect?” Shikamaru asked.

“Are you too tired?” Temari asked, opening one of the boxes to look at the pieces inside.

“Do _you_ want to play?” Shikamaru asked.

“Aren’t you slow,” Temari huffed, taking the board out of the box. “Come on then, let’s play.”

“Now?” Shikamaru just spluttered out.

“Oh my god, do you have eyes?” Temari groaned. “Yes. Sit down. I won’t wake Gaara up. Let’s pass the time.”

The boardgame ended in a tie.

Gaara woke up when they had played all their pieces and the point score was even. It had never happened Shikamaru before in this game, that both opponents had the exact same score.

“Wait – we take a second round,” Temari suggested, the same time Gaara grunted something from the sofa and got up in a sitting position. All her attention turned to him. “Hey there, drunky skunk. Let’s get you home.”

Shikamaru had not expected to see that gentle side from the terrifying whirlwind called Temari when she let Gaara lean on her as he put on his shoes. He just observed her, and that was when she twisted her head to look at him. He expected her to come with some sharp remark about the game that ended in a tie – but the only sharp thing she offered him was a glistering smile that made odd things to Shikamaru’s stomach.

To say the least, ever since that encounter Shikamaru’s mind had nonstop visited the memory of Temari’s smile and her competitiveness when they played the boardgame. Shikamaru usually won by lengths, as he knew that game inside out after having played it so much the paint of the cards had been rubbed off on the corners. Temari had put up a good fight, seeing similar strategies as he.

If it wasn’t for Naruto, who time and time again insisted he should bring her out on a date, he maybe wouldn’t have done it. But Naruto was a nuisance and never stopped whining when he got his mind stuck on something and it had been with very shaky hands Shikamaru had sent a message to Temari if she would possibly, maybe, eventually be interested in going out with him.

And then he had lied about the cloud-spotting place.

Temari had accepted after having left him hanging for half a day, and Shikamaru had to come up with an idea where to bring her. His favourite cloud-spotting place was his parent’s very own backyard, and he didn’t yet feel comfortable bringing her there.

But he knew of a wonderful hidden meadow up in the forest a few kilometres or so away from the closest road, on the other side of the river by their town, and he decided _that_ would be the most perfect place to bring her.

He planned a picnic, smiling at himself at his great plan.

However, his glorious plan turned into dust when bad weather appeared from nothing the day they met.

“So, where is your wonderful cloud-spotting place?” Temari asked with a curious glint in her eye. She was teasing him. Shikamaru liked it.

“Well, we’ll just walk a bit into the forest,” he shrugged, trying to act disinterested. He didn’t want to show her how he had waited for this moment. He was still surprised she had even wanted to join him on this walk.

It had maybe been a nice walk in nature, if only not the clouds slowly had turned into a darker colour, a colour too dark to hide the fact that a storm was incoming.

Temari let out a snort as the wind began blowing around them.

“I admire that you wanted to show me some clouds, but, dude, I have to say that this isn’t really an optimal day for – “

“I know, you don’t have to tell me that,” Shikamaru muttered. He should just have just given up the second he noticed the first dark cloud appearing in the sky, but some foreign instinct had begged him to keep going. He just… hadn’t want to lose this chance to spend time with Temari. He didn’t want to fail this date.

They had already walked rather far into the forest and it seemed the best to remain in shelter below the thick trees, instead of walking back.

When the sky opened itself and rain poured down, they found themselves standing below a big spruce, to hide from the rain.

Temari didn’t say a word when she crouched below the tree. Her face was still as if she was calculating outcomes and Shikamaru just stood by the outer edge of the coverage, feeling red and hot in the face.

This had ended in a disaster and it felt like it was his fault. What was supposed to be a nice picnic in the beautiful meadow had turned into an awkward moment hiding under a spruce. This was a failure and Shikamaru didn’t like how it felt, not when he had planned this for a few days. The weather forecast had promised beautiful weather, not this mad storm, damn it!

Maybe Temari had brought a storm with her, Shikamaru mused, thinking of when she had stormed into Naruto’s apartment.

_What a drag._

He didn’t have time to lament his misfortune, that Temari was probably sour and irritated here under the tree and that it had rained inside his jacket, before Temari stood up and pointed somewhere behind Shikamaru.

“Look,” she said. “An abandoned house.”

Behind Shikamaru, in the coverage of dark shadows and thick foliage, was a big, abandoned house. Shikamaru stared at it, at the angles of the roof he had never seen before. This was _his_ meadow, and he had walked here many times, yet never seen this abandoned house before. There wasn’t even any graffiti on the walls.

“We can get better shelter there,” Temari said and, not even having asked Shikamaru’s opinion, walked with decisive steps towards the house.

Shikamaru didn’t have anything to argue against it, so he followed her.

The abandoned house was big. The black paint on the outside of it had, as time had passed, withered away from the wooden planks that created the façade of the house. It had been decades since anyone had lived in this house.

Shikamaru was puzzled. How come he didn’t know of this house’s existence before now? It didn’t make sense.

The door was closed, but not locked and Temari didn’t hesitate at all as she stepped inside.

“See,” she said, seemingly proud over the decision to get inside the house. Shikamaru wasn’t as convinced but shrugged and dragged his hand through his drenching wet ponytail, thinking that maybe Temari’s idea had some merits. “We can sit inside here. I got coffee in a thermos with me, like you asked. And some biscuits as well, with toffee.”

They looked around the ground floor of the house. The floor was concrete, and the wooden boards that once had covered the floor had since long rot away. The room was huge, and spacey, since the ceiling was high up above them. There were some wooden benches by the wall and Temari walked over to them to sit.

Shikamaru was relieved she didn’t seem upset that the date turned into something that it wasn’t supposed to. A little picnic inside this weird smelling creepy house instead of out in the meadow wasn’t maybe too bad, considering they could still have been crouching under the spruce a bit away from where they were now.

He dared to smile to Temari, relaxing a bit as he sat down on the bench. The wallpaper behind him turned almost into dust as he leaned against it and it lured a laugh from Temari.

“God, this house is nasty,” she laughed. “Makes you think of the old ghost stories one heard as a child.”

“What ghost stories?” Shikamaru asked, putting a biscuit into his mouth.

“You know, Lady of the Well, or The White Lady in the Marsh, or the Headless Rider or the Demon Tanuki,” Temari said. She looked around the ground floor, at a forlorn, broken piano on the other side of the room. It really looked like it came straight from the scariest story, with the way spider webs had covered it. “My uncle told us ghost stories when I was a child. I wished I had written them down, since I have forgot some parts of them.”

“You could ask your uncle to retell them,” Shikamaru suggested.

“I can’t,” Temari said. “He is dead.”

“Oh,” Shikamaru said, quickly taking another bite.

_Don’t let this date turn into a disaster, now she is getting sad!_

“If I ever get a child on my own, I want to tell ghost stories to them too,” Temari said, not an ounce of sadness in her voice. Shikamaru relaxed once more. “I have good memories.”

They finished their biscuits and the mood had just turned lighter when a shot of thunder roared above them.

“It’s a thunderstorm,” Shikamaru sighed. “What a drag. Look, I’m so sorry the weather is shit – “

“Don’t be sorry,” Temari said. “This is fun.” She stood up and pointed towards a staircase. “Shall we go on an adventure?” She was smiling. “I bet there are tons of secrets in this house. There is even a second floor.”

“You want to go up?” Shikamaru asked, standing up. “Let’s go up and find some ghosts.”

Temari lit up and Shikamaru smiled at her eagerness. She had her frightening moments, like when she had stomped inside Naruto’s apartment, but now he was able to crack her outer shell and see the warmer inside of this woman. He could almost feel himself fall in love with her more and more for each second that passed.

They walked up the narrow, creaky stairs. Some of the steps had broken and they had to take a bigger step over multiple broken planks to get up. That could have been a warning sign enough for them. Don’t walk where the floor might break.

“Do you see any ghosts?” Temari asked as she followed Shikamaru.

The second floor was creepier than the bottom floor.

There were bedrooms, beds still with the bedsheets done, dolls laying around beside one of the beds, a broken table with shattered porcelain cups and spider web covering mouldy towels and what appeared to be food left decades ago on dusty porcelain plates.

“Ew,” Temari said as she looked over at the forsaken dinner table. “I wonder why the people who lived here left. They seem to have left in a hurry.”

“Maybe…” Shikamaru began, a smile creeping up on his lips. “They were hunted by ghosts.”

“Oh,” Temari said, smiling back at him. “How did it happen?” Her voice sounded like a sunny smile.

“Well,” Shikamaru said and looked on the floor. He walked over to the creepy table and looked over it. “There were sitting four people by this table. We can see three shattered coffee cups but four plates, which means one of them was a child not drinking coffee. It has to be the little girl who left her dolls here.” He looked over to the big room in the middle of the second floor. “They ran this way, towards the stairs, but one of them were distracted by something, and moved here, to the right. That explains why the table tipped over the way it was.”

He walked towards the middle of the room.

“They were probably on their way to the window, trying to escape by jumping out. If we look closely, we see – “

Shikamaru had walked over the floor towards the window, standing in the middle of the room. His gaze was focused on the window as his mind worked out the story and Temari was looking fondly at him, thinking _what a fascinating guy,_ when the floorboards below Shikamaru’s feet made an unfortunate creak and burst.

The wood ceased to exist – breaking into millions of wood splinters right where Shikamaru had placed his feet. This house was so old that it had only a single layer of floorboards, meaning gravity sent Shikamaru flying towards the concrete below them.

“Shikamaru!” Temari yelled when he disappeared.

Shikamaru had a few seconds to decide what to do. It tickled awfully in his body when what once was a secure surface now turned into a ticking bomb of hitting concrete, but he had few seconds to decide how to place his feet.

The fall was over four metres.

Shikamaru landed on his feet, but the fall was too high, and the angle was not right.

_Crack._

It felt like explosions in both his ankles and he crashed down on his butt – a shockwave travelling up his spine to his skull and it _hurt_.

He screamed.

“Shikamaru!” Temari yelled again and dashed down the stairs, only to find the wood being too weak to handle her rushing steps. The stairs broke just like the floor had, sending Temari tumbling down in a not so glorious somersault. She hit her head against a sharp corner and let out a little groan, but Shikamaru couldn’t take in anything that happened behind him, nor did he hear her.

“I’m passing out…” Shikamaru mumbled, something he later would forget he had ever said, since his brain was already in the process of shutting itself down.

“No, don’t!” Temari let out from the corner when she sat up. Her vision was double from the hard hit, and she felt warm blood make the way down her temple. She shuffled herself up on two shaky legs and got over to Shikamaru’s side. “No, no, no, wake up.”

Shikamaru was still unconscious from the pain, sweat breaking loose on his forehead, skin pale as snow.

Temari looked down at his legs, at the bones pointing in directions they absolutely were not supposed to point. She could see the bone press against the skin, white pointy tibias millimetres away from penetrating their way through the surface.

Both his legs had broken at the fall.

“Shikamaru, wake up,” Temari tried again, not so gently shaking his shoulder. A drop of blood from the wound in her temple trailed down her cheek and fell down on Shikamaru’s cheek. Temari stared at the blood on his face, and then at the following drop of blood landing beside the first. She didn’t even feel pain herself yet. She shook him again and this time his eyes flickered open.

He whined something Temari couldn’t make sense of.

“Shikamaru…” she whispered.

“It hurts…” Shikamaru whimpered.

“I know,” Temari hissed. “Everything will be fine, trust me. Don’t try to move. I’ll get help.”

“My feet…” Shikamaru croaked out after having lifted his head to see at the feet looking like they were not supposed to. “Temari, Tema… Tem… It hurts so much.”

“Calm down,” Temari said, fishing for her phone from her hoodie’s pocket, only to find it gone. It must’ve fallen out when she fell down the stairs. Panic started very slowly to set in.

“You’re bleeding," Shikamaru said after his gaze finally could focus on her. He forced a smile and their eyes met. He looked at her so fondly, as if she were exactly what he wanted – needed – to see in this moment of agony. Temari stared back at his contented face, for a moment surprised that he had smiled. “Are you hurt?”

“Oh,” Temari said. “Don’t think of me, this is nothing.” Somehow, she felt her cheeks heat up. “Your legs are broken. I need to get help to you.”

“Can’t walk now,” Shikamaru sighed, stating the obvious probably just to calm himself down. “My back hurts too. A lot.”

“It’s okay, don’t move, I just need to find my phone,” Temari said and stood up, limping towards the staircase in the search of her phone. She threw broken planks away, routing aggressively through the mess that had been the stairs.

She was so angry. Why did Shikamaru had to gotten injured so bad as he had right when they had it so nice?

Another thunder roared across the sky outside the house, reminding Temari that there existed a world outside this forsaken house. She bit her lip, dug her hand deeper.

“Found it!” she exclaimed when her hand hit something familiar. “Please work, please work – “

No signal.

“Fuck,” Temari hissed as she pressed 112, but the phone was silent. Were they too deep into the forest or was the storm disrupting the phone signals?

“Are they not answering?” Shikamaru asked, unable to act calm. His breathing was shallow, and his eyes were half-closed.

“Yes, they _are!”_ Temari said, wishing her words would turn true. “Fucking fuck.” She looked outside the window. The rain seemed to have ceased, with the wind howling outside remaining as the only enemy beside the thunder. They could make it outside without being soaking wet, and they _had_ to do something. Temari turned towards Shikamaru again and placed a hand on his arm to get his attention. “Shikamaru…? Look at me. We need to get out of here, and I don’t want to leave you alone– “

“You can go,” Shikamaru said, smiling sadly at her. Temari furrowed her brows.

“What?”

“If you need to go to get someone, or to get…” He silenced himself to groan a bit at the pain. “…to get signal to your phone, then you can leave me here.” He looked down at his legs. The bone had now been slightly moved when he had shifted his leg and it was dangerously close to break through the skin. He grimaced at the pain.

Temari felt a hot rush cover her, turning her almost angry at Shikamaru’s words.

“You are stupid if you think like that,” she said. “You think I can’t get you out? For fuck’s sake, let’s get you to safety. It’s not raining anymore, we can make it.”

“How?” Shikamaru asked. He had still not dared to try to sit up, probably scared that any movement in his legs will destroy them further. “Are you going to carry me?”

“You think I can’t?”

“Of course you can,” Shikamaru snorted, looking at Temari’s biceps. The fact that she grinds away on the gym in her free time did not go unnoticed. He sighed in defeat. “I just think… What a drag. Man, why did this happen?”

Right then, he felt extremely small and vulnerable, inside an abandoned house, unable to move by himself. A little tear made its way out of the corner of his eye.

“It hurts,” he repeated. “It hurts in my legs and it hurts in my butt.”

“Let me help you sit up,” Temari said and together with Shikamaru managed to push him to sit. He grimaced, but no sound escaped out of him. Temari crouched in front of him and brought her arms around him in an attempt to get him in some position, so she could carry him on her back, but just one wrong movement sent him hissing out of pain right in her ear.

She took a sharp breath.

“Okay, okay, we have to do this some other way,” she said. “Shikamaru, I have to leave you here and walk somewhere this darn phone is working. I need to call an ambulance.”

“They can’t get here,” Shikamaru whimpered. “We are in the middle of a bloody forest.”

“They have equipment to get you to the hospital without hurting you more,” Temari said. “Or do you want me to carry you somewhere?”

“No!” Shikamaru said a little too fast. “Sorry.” He peered down at the angles of his feet. Temari bit her lip. Her own feet were hurting at the sight of his.

“I’ll go now and call,” she said, voice dry and hard. “Don’t move.”

“I can’t move,” Shikamaru chuckled. “Not if I want to pass out again.”

Temari forced a smile, rubbed his shoulder and ran out the door into the storm.

There, in his own silence, Shikamaru dared to cry a bit at the pain and at the misfortune. Both of his legs were broken. One second they were having fun, telling silly ghost stories to each other, and then this happened, and _god, it hurt so much._ Then he reached down into his pocket by the side of his leg he felt his own phone inside it.

He hauled it out and unlocked the screen. He had one single baulk of signal, a weak signal, but maybe that was enough for one single call.

Temari had gone out in search for a chance for a phone call and had not come to think of asking Shikamaru if _his_ phone had any signal left.

Shikamaru pressed the phone to his ear, and after a few seconds of silence the phone call connected correctly. He did not have to wait long before someone answered.

“Hello,” Shikaku answered in his phone.

“Dad,” Shikamaru said and he bit his teeth together, trying to physically stop himself from turning into a whimpering, crying mess, but the pain had slowly turned unbearable and he began feeling like passing out again.

The minutes had passed on so slowly, and in reality, his legs had only been broken for a maximum of four minutes, but it felt like forty.

“Dad, help me. Temari went out to call an ambulance and – “

“Shikamaru.” He had never heard Shikaku sound so worried before. “What has happened? Why do you need an ambulance? Where are you?”

Shikamaru closed his eyes, telling him everything.

Temari sat by Shikamaru’s side, holding an arm around his shoulder and spoke to him, making sure he didn’t fall unconscious, for the whole time they awaited the ambulance. Shikaku was out there, helping the paramedics find the house, talking with them and arranging everything.

Temari just held Shikamaru.

Just held him.

And, right before the paramedics came inside the house, she pressed a kiss on Shikamaru’s sweaty, yet ice-cold forehead.

He wasn’t well enough to remember that kiss.

High on morphine and opioids from the double surgery, where the surgeon had screwed metal rods inside Shikamaru’s legs to keep the shattered tibias in place, Shikamaru came about.

“Temari – where is Temari?” was the first thing he asked.

“Shh,” Yoshino, Shikamaru’s mother, said. She was sitting by his bedside. There was another nurse in the room as well, a lady with a gentle smile. “You just woke up from surgery. Everything is okay. I’m here, oh my boy, everything is going to be okay.”

“But, but Temari was there,” Shikamaru said, still confused from the drugs in his system. “She – she helped me. Why isn’t she here?” He wasn’t even aware of how whiny his voice was and the only thing he managed to process was _where is Temari?_ He tried to shift weight over, tried to move, but Yoshino placed a hand on his chest and pinned him down.

“You can’t move,” she said. “You must stay here.”

The nurse came over to Shikamaru’s side, when he growled something to his mother.

“I need you to calm down,” she said. “You can’t move your legs just yet. Both your tibias had surgery and we need you to stay still and let them heal.”

“But _Temari,”_ Shikamaru said.

“The blonde girl?” the nurse asked, a smile tugging up on her lips. “She has been here all night. I think she is asleep in the waiting room. You can see her soon.”

_She’s here…_

Shikamaru leaned back against the pillow again and closed his eyes, immediately feeling more at ease. He drifted once again to dreamless sleep, not feeling his mother caress his arm. There was the faintest trace of a smile on his face.

The next time Shikamaru woke up Temari was sitting beside his bed. She looked tired, but when she noticed he was watching her, she smiled.

“Hi,” she said. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah,” Shikamaru said, blinking a little bit. He was feeling heavy and almost drunk, but the intravenous drip in his hand confirmed the main reason for his groggy feelings – he was high on pain killers. He looked back at Temari from the needle in his hand and began chuckling.

Temari was for a second confused and creased her forehead.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because isn’t this so typical,” Shikamaru said, still smiling. “I am a guy who wants things to go like things ought to go – no interventions, no trouble, no nothing out of the ordinary. And I had wished our first date to be … _normal_. A picnic out in the meadow.” He fell silent but Temari didn’t dare to interject anything. She could see him figure out what to say next. The poor boy was still so confused from the anaesthetic his thoughts didn’t run at their normal speed. “And it turned into _this.”_

“I’m sorry,” Temari said. “I’m sorry I suggested we’d go into that house. It was my fault. I’m sorry.”

Shikamaru looked at her, his brown gaze running up and down her face.

“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “I had fun. Temari, I had fun in that house. I felt excited. _Excited._ The date wasn’t going to be normal anymore; it was going to be exciting. You gave me something I hadn’t planned.”

“And metal rods into your legs,” Temari finished. Shikamaru snorted.

“Then of course I hadn’t planned to fall four metres and shatter my ankles, but you do what you have to do,” Shikamaru shrugged.

“Huh?” Temari said. “’Do what you have to do’? We didn’t have to go to the second floor. You didn’t have to wander around that room – “

“You became sad,” Shikamaru interrupted. “When you were thinking of your late uncle and the ghost stories. I wanted to make you happy, give you a new ghost story to think of. To make you smile. And I had to figure out a story on my own.” He smiled at her. “Give you a new story.”

Temari stared at him while processing his words. He had wanted to make her _happy_ and the price for that was the price of metal rods screwed to broken bones.

“You are crazy,” she said, smiling at him.

“I am the opposite of crazy,” Shikamaru said, reaching for her hand. “But maybe you bring out what little craziness there is in me. You troublesome woman.”

Temari burst out laughing. She curled her fingers around his and squeezed.

“Crybaby,” she said.

“Hey, my legs were broken, what the heck do you expect?” Shikamaru let out.

Temari just smiled at him.

“Thank you for trying to make me happy,” she said. “I appreciate that.”

Shikamaru shrugged.

“You're worth it,” he mumbled, a redness covering his cheeks.

Temari pinched her lips together, figuring out what to say next.

“I can go to the café here and get you some sweets,” she said. “Our first date ended at the hospital. Let’s begin our second date in the hospital.”

Shikamaru blinked at her, before settling into a soft smile.

“Yeah,” he said. “That sounds perfect.”

Temari stood up and right before she was about to leave the room she turned around, bent down and pressed a light kiss on Shikamaru’s lips.

“My little ninja,” she said.

Shikamaru was too dazed to say anything, to realise she was teasing his miserable fall by calling him a ninja when a ninja sure as hell wouldn’t have broken his legs, because she had _kissed him._

“And when I come back, I’ll tell you a ghost story,” she said, giving him the most wonderful smile he had ever seen before leaving the room in a hunt for sweets for their second date.

Shikamaru felt the butterflies flutter around in his stomach and it felt good.

Maybe it was worth breaking his legs, after all.

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> Come and talk to me at:  
> twitter @majsasaurus  
> tumblr @unioncolours


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